Press on Children's A&E Scandal

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/rbnews/11209265.No_children_A_E_policy_a_disgrace___council_leader/

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/11203481.NHS_Trust_director_defends_decision_to_not_take_children_to_threatened_A_E/?ref=rl

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/rbnews/11189753.Campaigner_warns_over_future_of_King_George_Hospital/?ref=rl

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/rbnews/11182493.Ambulances_not_taking_children_to_threatened_A_E/?ref=rl

Photo re Children's A&E Scandal

 BHRUT Hospital managers obsessed with closing King George Hospital A&E decided in 2010 to stop taking young children to King George Hospital A&E by ambulance regardless of clinical need.
 
This policy has now been abandoned and clinical decision making put back in place. BHRUT are refusing to say when the clinical framework was re-instated. However, earlier this month Andy was being told off the record by NHS staff and parents that no ambulances carrying children were going to KGH A&E.

There seems to be a discrepancy between policy and practice. if it is now policy that ambulances do take children to KGH, why are staff saying that this is not happening?"

 BHRUT is setting a poor example to staff by not disclosing what goes on in our hospitals. Why and how this mistake happened needs to be opened up to prevent it from happening again.

The Trust says the decision to redirect all blue light children's ambulances to Queens was agreed by the overview and scrutiny committees, yet no-one can provide any minutes or documentation to confirm this and Redbridge councillors do not recall this ever being discussed or agreed. If KGH is a fully equipped and staffed type 1 emergency department with full adult and child resuscitation equipment then why would LAS not take acutely ill children there?

Was this decision really based on clinical considerations or on a desire to run down KGH to make it easier to eventually close it? And are we now seeing a perfectly good children's unit being deliberately underused so that there will be fewer objections to it being closed? Its important to remember that we were assured that KGH A+E would not close until there were adequate alternatives in place. Yet Queens is already at over 90% occupancy so how will it cope with the increased demand if KGH closes? It looks as if the decision to close KGH and transfer care to Queens has already been taken and the case of children's services is just one example that we have been able to unearth of where a covert policy of running down the service has been taken which is at odds with the publicly stated policy. 

Andy Walker & Dr Louise Irvine National Health Action Party

Photshoot 1pm Sunday 11 May outside Kimg George Hospital

The purpose of this Photoshoot is to request BHRUT disclose outstanding information about stopping ambulances going to King George Hospital carrying children back in 2010.

Questions for BHRUT arising from statement

1) Is the only source of Child admissions at Clover ward, King George Hospital parents bringing their children to hospital?

 

2) Do all ambulances with children, blue light or not, now go to Queens?   

 

3) At which meeting of Rebridge Health Scrutiny Committee was the November 2010 change discussed at?

Photo from today and BHRUT statement on blue light ambulances

The Recorder could not make it so a big thank you to passer by who took this.

The BHRUT statement is as follows

Regarding your query about emergency (blue light) ambulances taking children directly to Queen’s A&E, I am happy to clarify.

London Ambulance Service (LAS) has not taken children by emergency ambulance to King George Hospital A&E since November 2010.

Patients need to be taken to the setting that will provide them with the best care and the best outcomes. This won’t always be to the nearest hospital. This principle has saved hundreds of lives in recent years for stroke and heart attack patients in London alone. 

With a dedicated ‘high dependency’ suite for children at Queen’s Hospital, improving care for those who need more intensive nursing and medical input, it was agreed that children who were acutely unwell should be taken directly to that service. This ensures that children with complex and high dependency needs receive the appropriate care as quickly as possible and prevents any delays in care from transfer between sites.

This decision taken by LAS was agreed by  the Trust and shared with the local councils’ Health Overview and Scrutiny committees and commissioners.

This arrangement has worked extremely well over the last three and a half years. ENDs

The statement raises a number of issues, I expect to write further tomorrow.

photoshoot Tuesday 29th April Queens Hospital Midday

The photoshoot is due to BHRUT refusing to issue a statement about whether ambulances carrying children still go to KGH A&E.

The Ilford Recorder asked for a statement last week,  nothing so far from hospital management.

The Recorder has arranged for a photographer,  the pic is at Queens as this is where the management are based who are not issuing a statement on the subject.

Redbridge CCG reply to Questions

Thank you to Redbridge Clinical Commissioning Group for providing the below

Oral questions from Cllr Andy Walker


Q: The CCG will be asked to seek an explanation from BHRUT as to why bed occupancy at Queens is 94% and 79% at KGH as CQC recommend a safe level of 85%.
A: In terms of high bed occupancy at Queen's, it's simple - too many people are being admitted to the hospital and those that are in there stay too long.
We launched two new services to Redbridge in November that are already having an impact on this - the Community Treatment Team and Intensive Rehab service - which help prevent admissions and also help get people home sooner. At the moment the CTT team at the hospital is able to treat and prevent around 60 people a week from being admitted. CTT teams in the community are currently treating and preventing more than 130 people a week from ending up in hospital. We've also reduced the time it takes to move people from a hospital to a community bed from 5 to 2 days.
The CCG and our health and social care partners are working in partnership to improve the integration of care so that people spend less time in hospital. The Trust is starting seven day working and a new joint discharge team will launch soon. Our draft 5 year strategic plan, which goes to NHSE in April, includes an objective to reduce avoidable time in hospital through integrating care by 13%.

The work we are doing on this with our health and social care partners has seen a reduction in admissions of 15% in the past 12 months and a reduction in A&E attendances of 5.67%.

Q: BHRUT is unable to provide waiting list figures for technical reasons and the CCG will be asked about this too.

A: This is caused by problems associated with the Trust's change of IT patient administration
system which means the Trust doesn't have access to accurate data and therefore isn't able to report waiting times at the moment.

This is a serious issue and the trust is working with the Trust Development Authority and our CCGs to help establish an interim solution while the IT issues are resolved.



Q: Cllr Walker will also call on the CCG to 'scrap the plan to close A&E at KGH in 2015'.

A: The plans to reconfigure services were signed off by the secretary of state for health in 2011, following a lengthy public consultation and an independent review by a panel of experts. Our job is to work with the hospitals Trust and other partners to implement those proposals safely and improve health outcomes for local people.

Centralising A&E services on one site will enable BHRUT to provide a safe, high quality A&E service. At the moment the service is stretched across two sites and the CQC identified that at times it may be unsafe because of this (e.g. staffing issues). We can't leave things as they are - it's not an option.

That's why we are looking at improving the entire urgent care pathway so that patients can be seen in the right place, more quickly, by the right teams with the right expertise and leading to better outcomes and shorter waiting times. Most people who go to KGH A&E now will still be seen there by an improved 24/7 Urgent Care Centre.

Last year we centralised maternity services and it has given us a safer, higher quality service for Redbridge women. That's what we plan for A&E.



Oral question from Cllr McGeary


Q: The improvements required by the Health for NEL proposals to A & E are likely to cost £50 million through the PFI route and are, as the trust says, unaffordable. How can the BHRUT say that they will still close King George A & E by December 2015 and still comply with the Secretary of State's statement that the reconfiguration changes will not happen until the health for NEL improvements have been made.

A: We've been very clear all along that changes to A&E services - just like maternity last year - cannot happen until it is safe to do so. That won't change. One result of the Trust being placed in special measures is that the new leadership is producing an Improvement Plan that will not only demonstrate how they will make the very necessary improvements to safety and quality of services, but will also show how they align this with the reconfiguration proposals.

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